EnvironMolds and ArtMolds offers a wide variety of casting products, metal and stones powders, fibers, fillers, mounting and display, resins, silicone, casting kits and ancillary materials to assist in casting and finishing.

1. Life Casting - More Treasured than Inanimate Casting
While both casting and life casting entail similar materials, supplies and techniques, there
obviously are important differences between the two art forms. To begin with, it’s more than
evident that while casts are made of ordinary and inanimate objects, a life cast involves
making molds directly on a living body. And this is what makes the process of life casting
much more challenging.
It follows that the mold making and casting materials used in life casting have to be chosen
carefully for safety and health reasons. Apart from being non-toxic and skin safe, they should
be easy to wash off, especially from the hair. Even if the mold tends to heat up, it can cause
burns or other injuries.
Allergic reactions on the body, skin irritations and the possibility of fine body hair snagging
in the mold material have to be considered as well. Therefore, it is always advisable to test a
small sample on the inside of the wrist of the model to check for any negative reactions like
redness or rashes.
This is why gentle materials like alginates, moulage and plaster bandages are generally the
medium of choice for making molds on the human body. Alginate is similar to the material
that dentists use to make teeth impressions, but have a relatively slower setting time. While
alginates are considered waste molds that cannot be reused, moulage offers the benefit of
multiple reuses as desired. Plaster bandages are used primarily for making belly molds of the
torso, as in the case of pregnancy casting. But obviously, polyurethane rubber or water glass
can never even be considered for this task!

2. On the other hand, regular mold making and casting can employ a variety of material like
ceramics, clay, wax, gypsum, silicone, latex, polyurethane or water glass without bothering
about health and safety concerns.
Then again, during a life cast the model has to stay still and motionless till the mold is
complete and can be taken off. Therefore, quick setting materials are needed as it is not
possible to hold a stationary pose for more than an hour or so. How to allow the model to
breathe and stay comfortable and anxiety-free has to be kept in mind too. Adequate supports
to help the model hold the pose are also needed.
De-molding is also an intricate job as the mold has to be carefully removed from the model’s
body without any snagging hairs or other injuries. But, molds of inanimate objects can be
easily de-molded with the only concern being that the mold should not stick to the original
piece or get damaged during the removal process.
Therefore, making a life cast requires greater care and attention, but the final life cast is
bound to be a more treasured and arresting than any regular cast! The level of realism is truly
beyond words.